some off the tip of my head:linux in generallinux (or general?) newshardwareprogramming/scriptinglinks (or maybe that would need only a single thread)lugs, conferences, and other meetings or community events

Non-water-cooler:It's my humble opinion that the "how-to" section is rather pointless. Only a handful of threads are actually how-tos...most are questions which normally *should* be in "other help topics" or other forum. Perhaps it could be renamed, or described a little better than "how to do it"...people seem to think it's for posting questions about "how to do it".

Off topic:The website as a whole could use a much more unified navigation system. It seems that every page you open has a unique set of nav links.

I agree with most of mikshaw's ideas. I think a General Linux, a News, Hardware and Programming/Scripting would all make nice additions. I really enjoy the forums and I guess I dont really have any complaints. Although on the topic of the site in general I often times have trouble finding what I am looking for, but that might be just me.

A category where one can post when one sees DSL mentioned/reviewed ANYWHERE, even the smallest mention.E.g., DSL gets a BRIEF mention on P57 of Linux Format magazine came out 29th. July 2005. On P57 (review of Debian 3.1,) there's a concise graph of distros that hail from Debian.Even the smallest mention, in context, perhaps can provide the opportunity for valuable analysis.